Music

Opportunities abound with Minnesota Music Coalition

November 8th, 2017

The Minnesota Music Coalition (MMC) is a St. Paul-based nonprofit that was created by music industry professionals to support the vibrant Minnesota music scene.

Although they are based in St. Paul, they provide their services to all musicians throughout the state of Minnesota. Some of the many services they provide are monthly educational workshops, assistance with networking and booking, and musician mentoring.

One of the MMCs most acclaimed programs is the Caravan du Nord, which is a…

Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein: hot sauce, devil locks, and metal

November 1st, 2017

Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein is a legendary man. His work with the Misfits helped to create and shape a genre. His solo act Doyle is currently on tour with Gwar and will be following it with the As We Die headlining run, starting with a November 6 date at the Aquarium. I got a minute to speak with the man himself.

High Plains Reader: The Misfits are pretty good band. I’ve heard of them and I guess you’re in that band. Do you ever get sick of people remembering you for the…

Running with The Pack A.D.

October 25th, 2017

Drummer Maya Miller on reading, writing, and rock n’ roll

The Pack A.D. is a dynamic two woman firestorm of heavy psychpop/garage-rock based out of Vancouver, British Columbia. We had the opportunity to catch up with drummer Maya Miller.

High Plains Reader: I’ve read multiple interview on the Pack A.D. and they all mention that you are highly influenced by film and music--

Maya Miller: We were always that way but I think when we first started out we were a completely different band. We…

Post Punk Jitters

October 25th, 2017

HPR interview: Omni bassist/vocalist/songwriter Philip Frobos

A city’s music scene is a mother of invention. With lots of bands working, recombinant bands form and sometimes great songwriting is the result. The best example I can think of right now is Omni of Atlanta. They’ve been described as “post-punk jitters, but cool,” but really they are indescribable.

HPR: Do you have any pre-tour rituals that you tend to stick to before you hit the road? I imagine there’s a lot to think…

Mark J. Lindquist: 2017 was practice

October 18th, 2017

“Experiences like these are a reminder why I have chosen the right career path; it is my hope that the things I do on stage as a speaker or a singer are able to lift someone’s spirits, help them through a tough time, or serve as inspiration to move forward to the next level in their life,” said Mark J Lindquist.

“We were entertaining in a USO-style show at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan on Christmas Eve. There were a couple hundred off-duty troops in the crowd who had come…

Maximum Carnage

October 4th, 2017

Carnage the Executioner on beatboxing, sampling and looping

HPR: How long have you been beatboxing?

Carnage: I studied boxing when I was somewhere between eight and ten years old. There was this one group back in the days called the Fatboys. There were three guys in the group and they were all big guys. They were produced by Kurtis Blow and they had a few hits around that time. There was a guy in the group that was bigger than the others. His name was Darren Robinson, rest in peace…

‘Thrash’ comes to the valley

October 4th, 2017

In 1989 David Fricke subtitled a Rolling Stone article “Boston thrash band The Pixies debuts in the U.S. with 'Doolittle'.” It was kind of a joke, alluding to The Pixies having more success overseas -- but that’s not the interesting part.

Fricke used the word “thrash,” which had already been reserved for aggressive, fast-tempo metal bands like Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax five years earlier. “Thrash” can be defined as “to beat (a person or animal) repeatedly and…

With their forces combined

October 4th, 2017

Husband and wife duo Whitehorse at the Aquarium

“The one thing you can control in this industry is how hard you work,” says two-time Juno award-nominated Canadian singer songwriter Luke Doucet.

At the age of 14 he set himself on an arduous schedule of guitar practice. He played in bands with his friends and then eventually playing in a band with his father, an accomplished jazz guitarist.

“Not everyone has to approach it as if they’re training to be in the Marines. That was the…

Wicked Bees this way come

September 27th, 2017

During my time writing for the High Plains Reader I have had the opportunity to discover (and hopefully draw attention to) the fact that we have no shortage of musical talent in the area.

No matter the genre, there are some talented representatives of it somewhere in town. And of course, there’s bound to be some creative overlap between musicians as well as friends.

So perhaps it was something akin to fate, or at least happy coincidence, that led me to interview the Wicked Bees several…

Nobody gets to say who is me but me: an interview with Grieves

September 27th, 2017

“You’re from Fargo so you must know Kipp G”

This was the first thing that rapper Benjamin Laub -- better known as Grieves -- said to me when we started this interview.

He has been to Fargo a handful of times over the last 10 years, a place that he says is very sentimental to him. “It was one of the first places I started going on tour,” he said.

He will make his next stop this Monday, October 2nd at The Aquarium supporting his awesome new record, “Running Wild.”

The first…